


Bring Your Child To Work Day

by Bubbly_Kandy



Series: Dickie Bird AU [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Dick is three years old, Dickie Bird AU, he's a baby, justice league - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-25 14:05:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15642270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubbly_Kandy/pseuds/Bubbly_Kandy
Summary: (An AU where Bruce adopted Dick when he was three)Really, taking a three-year-old to a Justice League meeting probably wasn’t a wise idea.





	Bring Your Child To Work Day

Really, taking a three-year-old to a Justice League meeting probably wasn’t a wise idea. Especially when the said three-year-old was too young to not _get_ the concept of secret identities, and would get upset if Batman told him to _shhhh._

 

However, the other superheroes _adored_ him. Batman was able to walk out of a meeting whenever he wanted, as long as he said that his ward was feeling uncomfortable or antsy. Batman _may_ have used that as a excuse in the past, but not _too_ many times. Just a few.

 

“Da-dee.” A small hand patted Batman’s arm. “ _Daaaaa-deeeee.”_ The hand patted faster, then a second hand joined the first and started to shake his arm, rocking it side to side. “Da-dee!”

 

But, other times, things like this would happen, and Batman actually did have to be in the room for this meeting. Dick (his ward) was being quiet enough, obviously not wanting to interrupt Diana, who was his favorite person in the Justice League and who had asked him to be a _little_ quieter for ‘Auntie Dia.’

 

“What?” Bruce whispered, moving his arm away from the little hands. He looked down at the tiny boy next to him, who was pouting dramatically and now playing with the dark green sweatshirt he had on. At least he wasn’t trying to peel off the domino mask, like he did the last time he was at a meeting with Batman.

 

“Da-dee, _bored,”_ Dick whined, bouncing up and down a bit to prove his point. Bruce sighed, trying to weigh his options. He couldn’t leave; Diana had asked him to listen to her whole speech, which was actually quite interesting and informative.

 

He couldn’t let Dick color, either; Dick talked as he colored, and Bruce knew from experience that a babbling three-year-old was distracting and irritating during a speech.

 

Finally, Bruce landed on a option that seemed to be the best choice. He picked Dick up and set him in his lap, encasing both of Dick’s hands with his own immediately before Dick could grab his notes and pen.

 

“Dick,” he said Dick’s name quietly, not wanting anyone besides him to hear, “If I let you sit on my shoulders, then will you not be bored anymore?”

 

Dick nodded, and Bruce turned him around so that they were face-to-face.

 

“Shhh,” Bruce whispered, holding his pointer finger up to his lips and tapping twice. Dick repeated the sound and motion, then, with minimal help from Bruce, crawled from Bruce’s lap to his shoulders, sitting there quietly and letting Bruce lean forward and start taking notes again.

 

Diana kept talking; her speeches were known to drag on a bit, that reason alone being why she was the one to give speeches the least. Bruce had heard Aquaman joke that in between the gaps of her speeches, Diana was probably writing her next speech, which Diana had never denied.

 

Dick swung his feet a little, kicking Bruce’s shoulders with little thumps. Bruce easily fuzzed the little kicks out, pouring his attention into Diana’s story about how she was trained by the Amazons and how she hoped that she could, maybe, teach a few of the techniques to the rest of the League.

 

About another ten minutes into Diana’s speech, Flash mumbled “one hour mark,” the snarky remark heard by only him and Bruce. Bruce considered childishly kicking Flash under the table, but decided to just ignore him. There was nothing more that Flash liked than to get under people’s skin; in fact, who was to say that Flash didn’t say that _just_ to get under Bruce’s skin?

 

Logically, that probably wasn’t the reason, but there was no harm in being suspicious.

 

Diana had went from battle techniques to a tangent about kevlar, the reason of the tangent being she wasn’t sure if people who had a lot of kevlar in their suits would be able to replicate a few of the more tricky Amazon battle moves, which Bruce didn’t fully agree with because, despite Diana’s dislike of kevlar, the fabric was actually very flexible and-

 

His thoughts were cut off as a screech that seemed to come from Hell itself suddenly rang through his head, causing him to jolt and hiss in pain, scrambling to turn his comm link off. The screeching persisted until he switched off his link, vanishing like it was never there and filling Bruce’s ears with silence. He massaged the bridge of his nose, recovering from the unexpected noise, and only when Flash tapped him on the shoulder did he look up at Diana, who had stopped talking and looking at him in concern.

 

“Batman? Are you alright?”

 

He waved her off, shaking his head and remembering that he did, in fact, have a small child sitting on his shoulders.

 

“I’m fine.” He said, patting Dick’s leg to make sure he was still sitting. “My comm link had a malfunction.”

 

Green Lantern snorted beside him, Bruce’s eye twitching

 

Bruce noticed that Clark, Aquaman, and now Diana were all stifling laughter, and his temper rose in a admittedly silly way. Still, he snapped “What?” and knocked his fist on the table once in irritation.

 

Diana, being the kind woman she was, calmed her giggles and pointed at the top of his head, saying,

 

“I believe we found the source of your malfunction, Batman.”

 

Bruce sighed, then reached up to grab Dick under his shoulders and lift him off of him, placing the young child in his lap again.

 

Diana went back into business mode, rearranging her papers and waiting until everyone had stopped laughing.

 

Bruce turned Dick to face him, the child vibrating in a clear ask to go back up on Bruce’s shoulders.

 

“Dick, were you chewing on my Bat-Ears?” He asked, Dick’s energy fading and the child nodding shortly.

 

“Sorry, Da-dee.” Dick apologized, his voice a little too loud for Bruce’s comfort, but it didn’t seem to bother anyone. “Sorry,” Dick repeated, then his gaze, judging by how his face tilted up again, went back up to where he was sitting. “Go back up?”

 

“No, Dick.” Bruce said, Dick clearly gearing himself up to whine. “You’re going to sit on my lap for the rest of the meeting.”

 

“Why?” Dick asked, his voice already wobbling and loud enough to divert Green Lantern’s attention from Diana and to the conversation.

 

 _“Quiet,”_ Bruce reminded Dick, tapping his finger to his lips twice again and Dick pouting more. “You’re sitting on my lap because you played with my Bat-Ears, and I don’t want you doing that.”

 

“Why?”

 

Bruce sighed, mentally begging Diana to finish her speech quickly.

 

“It hurt me, Dick,” Bruce said, Dick’s fake-pout falling and being replaced by Dick looking as concerned as he could be and placing his hands on the parts of Bruce’s cheeks that weren’t covered by the mask.

 

“Sorry, Da-dee,” he said softly, leaning forward and kissing the mask. “Kiss kiss, feel better?”

 

Bruce smiled, patting Dick on the back softly and tapping his legs to have him sit down.

 

“Yes, I feel better now. Thank you,” he whispered, partially wanting no one to hear and partially not wanting to interrupt Diana’s speech. Dick leaned against his chest, playing with his hands by contorting and wiggling his fingers.

 

Eight minutes later, Diana finished her speech, and when everyone stood up to converse for a few moments, she offered to take Dick off of Bruce’s hands and to show him her notes and the pictures she had of the Amazons.

 

Bruce, especially when he was in the Batman outfit, was not a fan of talking to others. The only time he was able to talk to other people for an extended amount of time was when he was at a gala or charity event, and that always drained his want for face-to-face communication for about a week.

 

However, before he could find Diana again, Flash jogged over to him, not using his speed for whatever reason.

 

“Bats, can I talk to you for a minute?”

 

“What is it?” Bruce pushed down his dislike for Flash and tried to listen to at least a little of what the man was saying.

 

“Batboy’s about two or three, right?” Flash asked, referring to Dick. Bruce nodded, Flash taking that as a invite to keep talking. “Well, I have a nephew- well, really, he’s _Iris’s_ nephew, but I like to refer to him as my nephew, ‘cause I’m dating Iris… Anyways,” He got back on track- “My sort-of nephew is about two years older than Batboy, so I was wondering-”

 

“You want the two to meet?” Bruce finished, Flash nodding rapidly.

 

“Yeah! Yeah, Wally’s been _dying_ to meet some new people, he’s very-” Flash did jazz hands, “extroverted, you know?”

 

“I’ll think about it.” Bruce said, Flash grinning happily.

 

“Cool! Should I give you our address, just in case…?”

 

Bruce sighed through his nose, nodding again and Flash zipping to and from the counter and grabbing a pencil and a pad of sticky-notes. He quickly wrote down his address and ripped the sticky-note off of the pile, rambling about his nephew the whole time. Bruce took the paper silently and opened a pocket in his utility belt, not saying anything more to Flash as he went to find Diana and Dick.

 

It took about seven minutes to get Dick away from Diana and into the Batmobile, Dick repeating a story Diana had been telling him, which Bruce recognized as the story of Diana’s own birth. Dick then stopped telling his story as he tried to buckle himself into his carseat, giving up after a few minutes and allowing Bruce to buckle him in. After he gently peeled the domino mask off of Dick’s face, Bruce got into the driver’s seat, Dick starting to tell the story again, albeit with a few twists and shortcuts.

 

“An’ Diana said that her mama made her all pretty, then Afro-dee-tee went-” Dick took in a deep breath and blew out of his mouth, his lips making a ‘O’ shape. “Then Diana said that her mama made her strong and really really fast, and she gave her her lasso, and…” Dick trailed off, trying to think of the next part of the story. However, it was clear that Diana had only gotten that far in her story, because Dick focused his attention outside of the window, watching the buildings seemingly run past.

 

When they were around three minutes from the manor, Bruce decided to bring up the conversation he had with Flash.

 

“Dick?”

 

Dick’s head quickly turned from looking outside to looking at Bruce, saying a tiny “huh?” and leaning forward to hear him.

 

“How would you feel if you could… hang out with Flash’s nephew?” Bruce heard Dick gasp, and he could see in the mirror that he was wiggling in excitement.

 

“Yeah yeah yeah!” Dick yelled energetically, Bruce cringing a little at the volume.

 

“Alright then, I’ll make a call tomorrow.”

 

“Okay, tay’ ‘tou, da-dee!” Dick chirped, Bruce smiling at the excitement emitting off of Dick in waves.

 

“You’re welcome, chum.”

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaa I hope you liked this!! If you have any ideas/suggestions for this au, feel free to tell me! 
> 
> Fun fact: I used to say 'da-dee' (more emphasis on the 'a' and 'e') and tay' 'tou (thank you) when I was three. It was great 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
